Industry leaders and stakeholders joined together this week to learn more about the AIMCH project – a collaborative innovation with the ambition to deliver high quality offsite homes faster, more reliably and at the same cost of masonry-built homes.

Advanced Industrialised Methods for the Construction of Homes (AIMCH) plans to identify and develop industrialised offsite solutions needed to meet current and future housebuilding demands. These will be trialled on live housing projects, with successful methods then being commercialised and brought to market in volume.

The ultimate goal is to help the housing sector deliver the tens of thousands of additional homes the UK needs to meet current demand, for the same or less cost than traditional craft methods, which can be built 30% more quickly and with a 50% reduction in defects.

The event, which took place at the RIBA's London headquarters on 20 May 2019, was chaired by Sir Edward Lister, Chairman of Homes England and of the AIMCH Stakeholder Group. The event gave everyone a deeper understanding of the project and helped to build relationships between stakeholders and organisations.

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Delegates, including representatives from Homes for Scotland, RICS, Cast Consultancy, CITB and the NHBC, also heard from AIMCH Project Director Stewart Dalgarno and Oliver Novakovic, Technical and Innovations director at project partner, Barratt Developments.

Funded by Innovate UK, AIMCH is a collaboration between Stewart Milne Group, Barratt Developments PLC, L&Q, Tarmac, the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC) and Forster Roofing Services Ltd. The project will be managed by Limberger Associates.

Stewart Dalgarno, AIMCH Project Director and Director of Product Development at Stewart Milne Group said:"The housing sector faces many challenges in meeting government targets, including skills shortages, poor productivity and low affordability. Housebuilding must change, and AIMCH is an exciting, challenging and game-changing project which is well placed to succeed in transforming the way homes are built.

"AIMCH's ambition is to use industrialisation to transform how we build our homes in the UK, leading to more homes that can be built quickly and viably. This event has been an excellent chance for project stakeholders to get a deeper understanding of the desired outcomes, give their input and learn from each other. The feedback received today was extremely valuable and will flow back into the project."

Sir Edward Lister, Chairman of Homes England and of the AIMCH Stakeholder Group added: "This event has got stakeholders and industry leaders excited about the huge potential of the AIMCH project, which we hope will revolutionise the housing sector. It was also fantastic for everyone to hear how it will deliver wider benefits in terms of jobs, investment and growth. I'm looking forward to watching the project progress."